Mail forms

Mail forms allow users to send you emails and feedback through forms on your website. The forms can include many different kinds of fields, such as text fields, multiple-line text areas, check boxes, radio buttons etc.

The guidelines in this section do not attempt to be exhaustive, but deal with the basics of setting up a functioning mail form.

How do I set up a mail form?

Go to the desired Block (A, B or C), select 'Mail form' and click on 'update'.

RESULT: this will create a blank mail form. Now you need to set up some basic information.

> Form setup > action: choose 'mailhandler.php' (this is the script that deals with sending mails)

> Form setup > Text above form: enter any text you would like to appear above the form here

> Form setup > Terms and conditions: enter any text you would like to appear below the form here

> Form setup > Recipients: select the desired recipients for the form from the groups available here. (If you can't see any groups, you can set these up in > admin > form recipients - see 'How do I create groups of form recipients?')

Now you can create the fields available to your users:

Go to the 'At this Location' pane and create a new field by clicking on the green plus symbol. This is what the fields mean:

Variable name: the technical name of the field in question (as mail forms can also be used to send information directly to the database, it is important to enter the correct variable name in these cases).

Fieldset: the group which this field belongs to. Each group will get a title above it. (Either select from an existing fieldset from the drop-down list or enter a new one into the text field. Once saved, this new text-field will be available in the drop-down list).

Label: the label wich the user will see next to the field (e.g. 'Your name:')

Form element: the kind of field you would like (e.g. 'Text' for a single-line text field or 'Textarea' for a multi-line text field.

Required: determines whether this field needs to be completed in order for the form to be submitted.

Validation: a check to see if the field in question conforms to a given format (e.g. a valid e-mail address).

Default value: if you want the field to be pre-filled with a given value, fill in the value here.

Note: a note which will appear below the field in question. (You can use this to further explain what the user should fill in, e.g. 'Enter your name here').

To set up a functioning mail form, it is advisable to have the following fields (you can expand the number and type of fields to fit your needs):

NOTE: Remember, setting up mail forms is pretty technical stuff, and presupposes a good deal of HTML knowledge. If you already have a functioning mail form on your site and would like to make a similar one, just duplicate the page containing the existing one, then make amendments to the new version.